


Vestigial

by janetcarter



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Gills, Other, body image issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22261525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/pseuds/janetcarter
Summary: The Vorlons are gone, but Lyta remains.
Relationships: Lyta Alexander & Ulkesh, Lyta Alexander/Kosh
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Vestigial

**Author's Note:**

> For the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt "Body Image Issues." I wrote this for my card back in May but didn't get around to fixing it up until now.

It’d taken a while to get them under control. If she got frightened, she might trigger the muscles and the skin would expand and her gills--it was still odd to say  _ her _ gills--would be out for everyone to see. She found herself most comfortable in chokers and blazers that went up to her neck in the earlier days, but they never quite bothered  _ her. _

Her main concern had been keeping them secret. She already stuck out enough, as if she was wearing an encounter suit herself. But really? If she were being perfectly honest, it wasn’t about how others would see her. It was that she wanted it to stay between her and the Vorlons. She wanted it all to be their little secret, her and Kosh; something only between them.

But then Kosh died, and Ulkesh crashed into her life. He made her want to scratch and scratch and scratch until the gills were gone and her hands were covered in crimson blood. She still couldn't touch her neck without thinking of him scorching every nerve in her body or shearing away the oxygen mid-diffusion. 

Now with Ulkesh gone, it was just her secret, all alone. She supposed they could be useful in the right situations, but the Vorlons weren’t coming back. She was expected to play amongst the humans as though she were still one of them. How was she supposed to do that when she knew all that she knew? How was she supposed to do that when she was a hyper-powered telepath with _ gills?  _

She wished they could still have some purpose, that she could go back to the days with Kosh when she still felt alive, but she couldn’t. And now her enhancements had become vestigial; just like her. 


End file.
